Heroine

グラミー賞ノミネート経験のあるヴァイオリニスト、ポーリーヌ・キム・ハリスは、クラシックだけではなく、アヴァン・パンク・ヴァイオリン・デュオ「String Noise」として活動するほか、ヴィジュアル・アートとメディア、映像とダンスに音楽を融合させる試みが高く評価されています。また、ジョン・ゾーンやフィリップ・グラス、S.ライヒ作品の初演を行い、ジェフ・ベックやレニー・クラヴィッツなどポップ・ロックの大物たちとも多数のコラボを展開、ジャンルを超えた世界を構築しています。ジュリアード音楽院出身のスペンサー・トペルは、「インスタレーション=作家の意向に沿って空間を構成し変化・異化させ、場所や空間全体を作品として体験させる芸術」に音を融合させるアーティスト。このアルバムでは、バッハのシャコンヌとオケゲムの「神に感謝せん」を新たな視点で再構築しており、「アンビエント・シャコンヌ」はライブ音源と録音がブレンドされた42分に及ぶ作品、「デーオ」は、オケゲムの「神に感謝せん」のアコースティック・エレクトロニック・バージョンとなっています。オケゲムの36のパートからなるカノンが天使の歌声を再現する部分では、それをさらに拡張させ、最終的にはメロディが響きと溶け合い、壮大なサウンドが生まれました。
ナクソス・ジャパン

Pauline Kim Harris has become a major phenomenon in New Yorks avant-garde milieu, and her work has taken her around the world as a virtuoso violinist and collaborator with leading artists and ensembles. Joining forces with composer and sound designer Spencer Topel, Harris has created two inspiring works for Heroine, a 2019 Sono Luminus release: Ambient Chaconne, a reworking of Johann Sebastian Bachs Chaconne in D minor, and Deo, another ambient piece, based Johannes Ockeghems 36-part canon, Deo Gratias. These acoustic-electronic arrangements create a transcendent mood, expanding the original material into myriad combinations and resonances that suggest a metaphysical understanding of the potential of ambient music. Harris has dedicated these pieces to loved ones who have suffered in this chaotic and disturbing time, and the soothing nature of her music is intended to heal, rather than challenge or divide. Ambient Chaconne preserves much of the sonorities and musical shapes of Bachs original, though over its 42-minute duration, the music evolves and takes on a mystical, expansive feeling that goes beyond a solo violins power to convey the infinite. Deo, with its multiple layers of Ockeghems canon treated as a loop of thousands of parts, suggests an angelic choir in all its brightness and beauty. Both works, with their contrasting hues of darkness and light, give this album a balanced program that will fascinate and move many listeners. ~ Blair Sanderson

Pauline Kim Harris has become a major phenomenon in New Yorks avant-garde milieu, and her work has taken her around the world as a virtuoso violinist and collaborator with leading artists and ensembles. Joining forces with composer and sound designer Spencer Topel, Harris has created two inspiring works for Heroine, a 2019 Sono Luminus release: Ambient Chaconne, a reworking of Johann Sebastian Bachs Chaconne in D minor, and Deo, another ambient piece, based Johannes Ockeghems 36-part canon, Deo Gratias. These acoustic-electronic arrangements create a transcendent mood, expanding the original material into myriad combinations and resonances that suggest a metaphysical understanding of the potential of ambient music. Harris has dedicated these pieces to loved ones who have suffered in this chaotic and disturbing time, and the soothing nature of her music is intended to heal, rather than challenge or divide. Ambient Chaconne preserves much of the sonorities and musical shapes of Bachs original, though over its 42-minute duration, the music evolves and takes on a mystical, expansive feeling that goes beyond a solo violins power to convey the infinite. Deo, with its multiple layers of Ockeghems canon treated as a loop of thousands of parts, suggests an angelic choir in all its brightness and beauty. Both works, with their contrasting hues of darkness and light, give this album a balanced program that will fascinate and move many listeners.